fabian oefner: dancing colors – making sound waves visible

fabian oefner: dancing colors – making sound waves visibleall images courtesy of the artist

bridging the gap between the acoustic and visual world, fabian oefner‘s ‘dancing colors’ express sound waves through explosions of colored pigments, their movement a result of music pulsing through a speaker. the swiss artist wraps the device in a thin foil of plastic and places the powder on its top surface. when the box receives a sound, the film begins vibrating, causing the colored matter to explode and shoot into the air in a symphonic manner. it is these moments – which last only a fraction of a second – that oefner captures.

colored pigment is placed on speakers, the vibration of sound causing the matter to explode into the air

the process involves the artist attaching a microphone to the speaker, picking up sound at which point a signal is sent to a connected flash system,triggering the lights to illuminate these ephemeral instances.

the images are captured at that brief moment…

the studio space where the images are captured and the speaker which the artist uses to trigger the pigments